Tensions stayed high on the Korean Peninsula on Friday as North Korean media warned that a planned U.S.-South Korean naval exercise pushed the countries "closer to the brink of war" and the North's military launched artillery drills within its own territory but close to the South Korean island it attacked Tuesday.

North Korea's Kim Jong Il reportedly dispatched his top nuclear envoy to Beijing on Tuesday to discuss restarting nuclear disarmament talks, a day after pledging Pyongyang's commitment to a nuclear-free Korean peninsula.

Armed police patrolled the quiet streets of a Tibetan community in northwest China on Monday, following an outbreak of anti-government violence stemming from the apparent suicide of a monk who had been questioned by police.

The U.S. State Department said Friday that China's repression of religious groups intensified during the last year, citing as evidence Beijing's crackdown on Tibetan Buddhists and its harassment of Christians and members of the Falun Gong spiritual group.

China grappled with backed-up rivers and reservoirs in danger of collapse, along with looming storms heralding the start of rainy season that threatened Monday to compound damage from the country's worst earthquake in three decades.